Soccer exhibition canceled after second team cancels

Club team San Salvador unable to arrive in time for match

JOSH GAJEWSKI

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, July 6, 2003

Less than 24 hours after it was announced that Nigeria had called off its soccer exhibition against Ecuador scheduled for Saturday night at Robertson Stadium, the club team from El Salvador that was scheduled to take Nigeria's place did the same thing Saturday morning.

Chris Rogers, the media liaison for event organizer Omega Sports, said the decision to cancel the match was made at about 10 a.m. Saturday after club team San Salvador was unable to secure direct flights from the Washington, D.C., area for its entire contingency of 26 players.

San Salvador had played an exhibition match Friday night and, since Thursday, had twice confirmed with Omega Sports that it would be able to take Nigeria's place and arrive in Houston in time for the scheduled 7 p.m. kickoff, Rogers said.

"We probably said at about 10 a.m. (Saturday), `Enough is enough,' " Rogers said. "(San Salvador) delayed in making a decision."

Those people who purchased tickets for the match may obtain refunds by calling 1-972-764-3581 or by visiting www.omega-sports.com.

Rogers estimated that 3,000 to 4,000 tickets already had been sold before Saturday but added that with a large walk-up crowd anticipated, attendance was expected to be somewhere between 12,000-25,000.

Had Nigeria been able to play, Rogers said, organizers expected a sellout of more than 30,000.

Nigeria, which was to return to the United States for the first time since winning the soccer gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, cited the ongoing labor strike in its country for not being able to travel to Houston.